The Other Side of Reality
by secretsecrettunnel
Summary: After Starfire jumped through the time vortex, what happened on the other side? A grown team waits and wonders. A continuation of "How Long Is Forever?".


Short and sweet. A continuation of the alternative time line from the moment Starfire steps through the vortex in "How Long Is Forever?". At the moment this is merely a one-shot. I may continue it, but if I do, it will most definitely be pushed up to an M rating.

(Anyone who may have been alerted to this through being on my alerts through my Twilight fiction, please take a look at my profile page, there's a notice there for you.)

I don't own anything except the clothes on my back (and a fabulous new handbag).

They stood and watched Starfire leap back through the time vortex, the clock grasped firmly in her hands. There was a moment of silence as the vortex closed completely before the Baby Warp gave a shrill shriek that pierced through the air.

"Well... now what?" Beast Boy asked, reaching a hand up to scratch at his balding head. Nightwing glared at the spot the vortex had been in. "Will our Starfire return now or...?"

"Maybe," Raven responded quietly, floating forward to stand over the infant villain on the floor. "We're technically in an alternative universe from the one she disappeared from all those years ago. Tomorrow when we wake up she might be here, she might not. It could happen at any time."

"If it does," Cyborg added with a sigh. He lifted his arm and looked at the read outs, his human eye closing briefly before his whole form seemed to deflate. "I need to head back to the Tower. This battery pack isn't going to last much longer without a recharge.

"We'll all go," Nightwing announced, his gaze turning to each of the elder Titans in turn, waiting for a negative reply. "Raven, teleport us to the police station first so we can hand over... whoever that is now crying over there, and then take us back to the tower."

The woman in white gave a curt nod before he felt himself being enveloped in dark energy for the first time in a long time.

Cyborg was stunned as they were released from Raven's energy and deposited in the main operations room of the Tower. The disrepair he had left behind only an hour earlier was no more. Bright lights filled the room and the computer terminals all buzzed and binged like they were meant to – he could even hear the light humming of the refrigerator in the corner of the kitchen.

"Dude, you've kept this place looking niiiiiice," Beast Boy commented as he threw himself down on the couch with a flop and a wobble of his oversized stomach.

"I haven't, this place looked as bad as I do when I came to help earlier!" Cyborg moved to one of the terminals and began to access the system.

"It's already started, then," Raven said in a monotone as she floated towards another computer station and started looking through data.

"Totally incomplete information though," Cyborg muttered, his searching turning out futile. "It's like I can't access the system. I'm too scared to plug myself in to this thing!"

"The time streams are still trying to catch up and match each other," Raven answered, pulling her hands back inside her white cape and floating over to the kitchen. She did not show any surprise as she opened a cupboard and found her usual brand of green tea, the box open and missing a few tea bags. "We'll just have to wait and see."

"I think it's obvious that we're all meant to be here," Nightwing observed as he looked around the large living area and taking note of personal feature and effects that were quite clearly theirs. Raven's tea had been a dead giveaway, as had the pile of games in front of the television screen that Beast Boy was drooling over. The stack of reports, in his hand writing, on one of the tables proved enough to him that he should be here. "Let's just stick it out and... see."

"It's possible that memories will return to us in due course," Raven added, her dark energy guiding the tea making utensils around the kitchen area. "The ones we have now could disappear. I'm not entirely sure. Time and space are a complicated thing – even more so when someone tampers with them."

"I'm going to explore the rest of the Tower, see if I can discover anything else," Nightwing said to his old friends as he headed towards the hall way. His footsteps echoed back towards him as he walked the dark corridor, heading towards the evidence room first.

The air was musty as the door swished open. Tidy boxes and cabinets lined the outside of the room, the large table in the middle holding only a few items and a couple of sheets of paper. She wasn't in here.

He cursed himself as he left, annoyed for letting himself get hopeful. There was no guarantee Starfire would reappear in this time line. The training room was his next port of call. The monitoring consoles were offline, not allowing Nightwing into the system to check logs, to check if she existed. There were peculiar burn marks on some of the walls, reminiscent of her green star bolts and eye beams, but there was every chance that this part of the Tower had no repaired itself yet.

The small light of hope burned inside though as he left and headed towards the living quarters. Her bedroom door lay in front of him and Nightwing took a deep breath, hit the keypad and then exhaled as the door slid in front of him. The room was dark. Very dark. And empty. Flipping on the light, Nightwing could see the pale purple and pink shades that had decorated the walls in his youth, but there was no furniture or personal effects in the room.

He turned off the light and closed the door as he sighed quietly and then headed on to what had been his own room. The door swished open easily as approached – some things had never changed. In the dim light provided by the open blinds he shed his costume and crawled into his bed, his heart heavy.

It was impossible to change time.

He stirred and groaned as he felt hot hands pressing against his back. The mattress shifted beside him and soft lips pressed against the top of his should.

"I did not mean to wake you," A soft feminine voice whispered in his ear. He felt soft curves mould against his back and a warm arm curling over his side to rest against his chest. "The patrol was very quiet. There was almost no need for me to be there."

"Star?"

"Yes, Richard?"

"God, I missed you," Nightwing answered, rolling over and pulling the familiar, yet different, alien woman to his body. His hands glided over the warm skin of her back, her wild hair tangling between his digits. He wove his legs between hers and felt her breasts press against the hard plains of his chest.

"I was only gone for a few hours," Starfire replied with a soft sigh, her hands gripped his shoulders.

"It felt like twenty years," Nightwing groaned out before finally pressing his lips to hers.

_Thanks for reading. Let me know if you'd like this continued._


End file.
